MICHAEL DEEMER

Vice president of business development and legal services, Downtown Cleveland Alliance

Michael Deemer is one of those lawyers whose legal training is almost incidental to the work he does. Mr. Deemer, 36, sees his career as more about building communities than trying cases in court.

These days he's doing the former at Downtown Cleveland Alliance, the nonprofit financed by downtown property owners that is working to rebuild the center city. As the organization's director of business development, it's his job to attract jobs and residents downtown.

“Being an attorney, and my legal background, is helpful in everything I do,” he said. “It's certainly helpful in trying to negotiate real estate deals and interact with commercial real estate brokers and attorneys that are active in the downtown market.”

A graduate of Ohio University and Ohio State University's Moritz College of Law, Mr. Deemer came to Cleveland from Columbus earlier this year. He was following his wife, Vanessa Coterel, who had taken a job here last year as an attorney with the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights.

In more than a decade in Columbus Mr. Deemer had worked for a state senator and the Ohio Poverty Law Center before becoming chief deputy to Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann and then an economic development policy adviser for Gov. Ted Strickland.

“Given his experience working directly with businesses on behalf of the state of Ohio and his broad understanding of economic development, we thought he'd be a great choice to help us create our new business development center,” said Joseph Marinucci, president and CEO of the alliance.

Mr. Deemer shuttled back and forth along Interstate 71 until the Downtown Cleveland Alliance job came along.

“I was looking for an opportunity that would allow me to draw on my work in economic development, my interest in urban development and my interest in law and public policy,” he said. “It just so happened that DCA was starting a business development office.”

The alliance sees the office in the Old Arcade as the place to help site selectors learn about downtown and the changes on its horizon, especially the new casino and convention center.

“It's a tremendously exciting time to have $2 billion in development,” Mr. Deemer said. “As I talk to businesses that are locating downtown or growing and looking for additional space, they're excited in a way I don't think they have been for a while.”

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